Son of a Serial Killer (10 page)

31

Eve sat at the kitchen table and finished her salad. She hadn't got dressed since Ben had stripped her naked hours ago, and she felt great, and happy, so decided to treat herself and make the most of the situation. She planned to do some reading, maybe watch a movie, and just relax until Ben came back.

She had tried to call him before she began eating, but his phone went to answer
phone. This didn't concern her, although she had seen that he had ignored calls from his mother and his girlfriend, but she firmly believed he wouldn't do the same to her. He can't have heard the phone, or he was driving, or talking to his mother or was maybe even seeing his old boss trying to get his job back. She didn't let herself think about him being with Natalie, she wasn't so much jealous, as a little insecure. But she did well to convince herself that he wasn't there, at the home they shared, patching up their differences.

Eve
rose from the table, went to the bathroom and stood naked before the mirror, under the bright light. No make -up, no clothes, this was Eve. And today, Eve loved her life. She knew that this happiness was down to this wonderful guy she had met just hours ago. A man who had said he was not perfect, a man who has admitted that he had problems, many problems to deal with, yet a man who’d felt the same comfort in Eve's company, as she had in his.

She walked back into the front room and opened a drawer, pulled out her diary and
a pen, then laid down on her bed. She propped herself up with an elbow, leant over the book and opened it up to the next blank page. Eve began to write about Ben, about the hopes and feelings he had provoked in her, about the dirty sex they'd had, about the soft, sensual sex they'd had too. She wrote about the tears he’d shed when talking about his problems, he had asked for her opinions but not for her help, he was strong and she was sure of it.

She wrote of the advice he had given her, comparing him to her parents who no longer spoke to her due to her straying off the path, her parents who sent just enough money to keep her off the streets every week, but not strong enough or caring enough to drag her back on the right path or even knock sense into her. Ben had spoken to her straight, honestly and openly, and she hung from every word as if this special
guy knew secrets that no other person knew.

Eve laughed to herself.
Was she getting carried away? She knew that she probably was, but she enjoyed it, she loved it, she may even love Ben, already! What was she thinking? She laughed some more.

Eve checked her mobile phone, on the off-chance that she may have missed a call or message from her new lover.
She hadn't. She closed her diary and put it on the bedside table, grabbed the television and DVD remotes, and took her mind off things by watching one of her favourite films, a story about true and forever lasting love.

32

The car park had a strong police presence trying to keep an agitated mob of workers calm whilst trying to get any useful information from them. Workers, who had just finished a ten or twelve hour shift, were being told that they couldn't get to their vehicle due to a serious crime that had taken place.

There was not one useful statement given by any of the group.

The deceased had been dead for well over an hour before he was finally found. Almost half of the cars in the car park at the time of the murder had been driven away by their owners, without so much as a glance at Charlie's vehicle of death.

The woman who found him,
a financial controller for a different company in the same building, only saw him as she was climbing into her car, parked next to his, and noticed the splatters of blood on her passenger side window. She went to inspect the mess and found more than she'd bargained for. Screaming, she'd run back up to the reception desk and that's when the police were called.

Summers stood a few feet from the car, as forensics, inch by inch, looked for fingerprints, fibres, hair, different types of blood and
DNA, anything that could help pinpoint the killer.

‘
Boss,’ called Kite.

Summers turned to see him
approaching, a glum look on his face.

‘
Give me some good news, Kite,’ said Summers.

‘
No can do, boss,’ he replied. ‘Some disagreement between the firms who work here, and the management company, means that the CCTV was neither repaired nor upgraded after a problem with the system...’ he checked his notes, ‘last autumn.’

‘
For fuck’s sake!’ spat Summers.

That was the first time Kite had heard his boss speak with such venom, he liked it.

‘I’ve got a full list of employees, past and present. Apparently he was a bit of a player, so no girlfriend as such, although there are a couple of bars and strip clubs he frequented,’ said Kite. ‘The secretary is going to email me a report which will show us who was at the victim’s office today, and if they were on the phone or logged onto their terminals around the time of death.’

One of the fo
rensic team approached and told them that they were finished.

‘
We've got a few samples of blood to test, also a hair that looked out of place. Fingerprints were collected for examination, but the number of people who could have already been in the car, or touched it, really means that the prints are not going to be the key to solving this one,’ he said. ‘We'll push through the blood and the hair as a priority and take it from there. Get your boys to bring the vehicle to us and we'll take a deeper look inside if necessary, but I'm not hopeful we'll find anything more. You can go ahead and get stuck in now.’

And with that, the forensic team made their exit
, finally allowing Summers and Kite to get close to the crime scene. Within an instant, The Phantom was the number one suspect for both Summers and her new protégé.

Charlie's corpse had lost a considerable amount of blood, his face and hands were now very pale and his open eyes were lifeless.

Summers took in the sight before her.

It was clear that the murder weapon was a sharp object, likely a knife, used to stab the victim repeatedly until he was dead or very close to dying, certainly there wasn't much fight left in the victim when his murderer stopped attacking him.

The stab wounds were grouped around the face, neck and body of the victim, as was The Phantom’s typical modus operandi, although, the attack would seem to have taken place through the window of the car, meaning wounds to the lower parts of the victim’s body were less likely. This should be taken into account.

Kite and Summers had a look around and under the car, with the small hope that the murderer had amateurishly discarded his weapo
n before fleeing. This proved a fruitless waste of time. They approached each other and Kite summed up the situation.

‘
No weapon, no CCTV, no witnesses, style of the murder would indicate our guy to be the primary suspect,’ he said.

Summers
nodded, commending his brevity, but asked why The Phantom would be here in this car park for the killing. Was it not random this time?

‘
Let's hope forensics pull a rabbit out of the hat,’ she said.

‘
Or a hair?’ joked Kite.

A small smile from Summers let him know that
he got away with a bad joke in a sad moment, as two journalists walked around the corner but were blocked by some uniformed officers. Summers saw them and indicated to Kite that it was time to go, so they climbed into his car, reversed to the far end of the car park, and pulled out of the exit.

‘
How were you getting on with the census details?’ Summers asked.

‘
In fact,’ he replied, ‘the ONS were more helpful than I thought they would be. They’ve got a pretty organised system up there. With any luck, we should have a list of names and address' when we get back to the station.’

Summer
s gave a small sigh of relief. Even when all you've got is a long shot, it's better than nothing, and for once they’d a few things to go on. The list from the ONS should have a number of names that fit the profile of the killer, and live in the right part of town.

Also,
the employees of the recently deceased Charlie Peacock meant a new line of enquiries had arisen, and if this was The Phantom, something had changed, he was working out of his comfort zone, this meant he was more likely to mess up.

And the
n there was the hair that ‘looked out of place,’ what did that mean? She kicked herself for not pushing for an explanation at the time, but trusted forensics to pass along any valuable information as and when it arrived.

They headed ba
ck to the station to set out a plan of action.

33

Ben and Natalie sat on the sofa.

The sofa had been the first thing that they'd bought together, a joint decision they'd made within days of her moving into his home, in an effort to make the place more suitable for both of them, instead of the bachelor pad
that it was before she arrived.

Slowly, over the years, she had put her distinct feminine touch on most of the rooms of the house, using Ben's money of course, but he didn't mind. It kept her happy and occupied, which was easier than living with a woman who was unhappy
and bored.

Ben held the pregnancy test in his hands, twiddling it round, not knowing that this piece of equipment had, months ago, been placed in the
path of another woman's urine, none other than the wife of his disloyal friend, David.

He couldn't believe how complicated his life had become in less than forty-eight hours.
What was he to do now? Just this afternoon, he had resigned himself to the fact that he was born to be a murderer, to follow in the footsteps of his father. But now there was a further complication, a baby.

He had always wanted to be a father, he knew that. He recognised the special bond that he and his father had
always had between them, and believed that that was what life was about. He truly hoped that having a son, or a daughter, would make his life complete; that it would fill the void that he often felt in his life.

It wasn't the job that would sometimes get him down, although he knew that some of the business that he had done was not always as ethical as he would have liked. It wasn't even the fact that Natalie could be a difficult bitch when she didn't get her own way. He just wanted a family, to replicate his father's greatest achievement, a happy home.

Yet now he knew, everything he had once thought he understood about his father, his home, his family, was false.

So how important was a baby?

Natalie had put on a great show, tears, screaming, pleading, and Ben had fallen hook, line and sinker for it all.

He believed her when she said she had bee
n with David just three times. She said three times because once or twice wouldn't have been believable. In truth, she had met David over twenty times.

He believed her when she said it was always safe sex, which was false, after David was given a clean bill of health by the clinic, and Na
talie took the pill religiously, and preferred sex without condoms anyway.

But the big one, was the one that made Ben think he was at fault for this recent blip in their relationship, with his bout of depression, the neglect of his girlfriend, the way he spurned her sexual advances and left her needing and seeking that special attention from elsewhere.

She apologised for using David to satisfy her needs, but knew that David and Ben no longer saw each other, and thought that it would just be until Ben got his life back together, pulled his socks up and got on with things.

Then she asked him to marry her.

Natalie had gotten on her knees in front of him, pulled out a small jewellery box and said that it was time to do things correctly, in the proper manner.

‘
I chose it myself,’ she said, smiling cheekily, as she opened the box and gave it to Ben.

He took out the ring, inspected the shining diamond set on a pl
atinum ring and nodded his head, then slid off of the sofa, down onto his knees and there they were, kneeling in front of one each other, staring into each other’s eyes.

He slipped the jewellery
onto her ring finger.

‘
No more cheating,’ he said.

‘
I promise,’ she replied. ‘And let's do it soon, before I start to show. I don't want a big bump ruining the wedding photos.’

Typical Natalie
, thought Ben.

They hugged for a
brief moment, then Natalie, wanting to seal the deal, gently pushed Ben down onto his back, undone his trousers, and pleasured him orally.

An hour later, Natalie had pr
epared herself some food and sat alone in the kitchen, eating, after Ben had declined the invitation to join her. She knew he was still a million miles away from the Ben that she first fell in lust with, but she didn't care. At this point, he had forgiven her, on the surface at least, for her infidelity, he believed she was pregnant and he was the father, and accepted the marriage proposal without too much fuss at all.

Was she really that good at manipulating?
Was he just too weak and confused over the whole affair and just agreed so as to not rock the boat further? Did he just want the easy life?

Natalie preferred to think that she could keep him wrapped around her little finger,
like most men. It pleased her to think like this, that she was all powerful, almost as much as the thought of marrying him and getting her filthy little hands on his inheritance.

His inheritance…

Natalie had to make a decision about the letter that she'd opened, it was dated, so she knew she had to do something fast. Could she just get rid of the letter, hope that the solicitors send another one without phoning Ben about the first one, thus arousing his suspicion as to where the first letter went, or just give the Ben the letter, say that she opened it by mistake, and be done with it.

She figured that with the pregnancy story going down so well, that it wouldn't matter too much if he was sceptical about her change of heart about children and marriage, the decision had been taken out of his hands as she was carrying his child.

She finished her food and put her plate in the sink, then went and fetched the letter, the letter that told Ben he was to receive a life-changing amount of money in the very near future.

‘
I'm sorry,’ she said, as she handed over the envelope, ‘I opened it by mistake earlier on.’

She sat down beside Ben, who hadn't moved from the front room since he'd been told of the baby.
He opened the envelope and read the letter. Natalie noticed the lack of excitement, or shock, or anything whilst he read the letter. She put her arm around him.

‘
Look, I know the baby is out of the blue, and the last month or two have been difficult for us, but this is a chance for a new beginning. Your dad left you this money and he wanted you to enjoy it. So enjoy it,’ she said, as she moved in to cuddle him, until a loud knock at the front door interrupted her advances.

Ben answered the
door and his heart stopped beating.

Summers, Kite and two uniformed officers stood before Ben, and invited him to the station to answer some questions. He wasn’t un
der arrest, but it would be useful if he would accompany them and help with their enquiries, as his boss had just been murdered, and he was seen at the office just yesterday.

Summers looked at Ben as a thousand th
oughts whizzed around his head.

‘
What was he thinking?’ she thought. ‘Was the shock on his face due to the news of Charles Peacock’s death? Or the fact the police had already found their man?’

S
he was sure she had seen his face before, as Ben reluctantly agreed to go to the station. He told Natalie not to wait up, it was clearly routine procedure and there was nothing to worry about.

Natalie looked out of the
kitchen window as they descended the steps and Ben was ushered into the back of a police car, noticing the worried look on his face as it happened. She watched as the two non-uniformed police talked briefly before getting into a different car and following their colleagues down the road and into the distance.

Ben couldn’t be responsible for the death of Charlie, she thought, even if he did lose his job rather unfairly
. Ben was no killer. He was too soft to do something like that.

Natalie’s
phone rang, it was David. She’d already ignored two of his calls earlier that day.

‘
What do you want?’ she asked, abruptly as she answered the call.

‘
You’d better watch your tone, you conniving little cunt,’ replied David. ‘Tanya said that you think you’re pregnant. No fucking way. I don’t know what you’re up to, but I want a piece. You’re going to meet me tonight, you’re going to suck my cock, and then we’re going discuss why you are involving my wife in one of your schemes!’

‘
Fuck you, David,’ Natalie shouted down the phone.

‘
If not, Natalie, Ben will know everything about you and your business. We’ll find out just how much he loves his little Natalie once he knows you’ve fucked half the city,’ he said.

Natalie hung up the phone.

So far, she had convinced Ben that she had made a mistake, but if David followed through with his threat, all would be lost. She couldn’t risk that, and within moments dialled David’s phone.

‘
Ok,’ she said, ‘I’ll come and meet you. Give me thirty minutes.’